Share this photo on Twitter Share this photo on Facebook

Golden Touch

Posted by
Darkelf Photography (Perth, Australia) on 27 May 2024 in Landscape & Rural and Portfolio.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Visiting the glacier region on the west coast of the south island in New Zealand was a bit of a mixed bag in terms of weather. We brought rain from the north with us and it persisted for most of the day. Low clouds kept hovering over the peaks of Southern Alps, and the rain was just heavy enough to deter us from heading out on any more advanced or extensive walks. Closer to the evening, we could see a small break in the clouds developing to the west. The rain kept coming but we took a chance, and headed out to Gillespies Beach to see if condition were any better there. It is not a long drive from Fox Glacier, maybe around 25 kilometres, but the light and conditions turned out much better indeed. There was still a touch of rain around but nothing to worry us too much.

To explore the area, we first went onto the beach and then for a walk along the coast and through a patch of beautiful rainforest. There was also some old mining machinery scattered around to keep us interested along the way. As we came out of the rainforest, I could see that the break in the clouds had opened up even further, and I could see a bit of sky right over the horizon as well. That changed my plans a little. Originally, I was going to stay a bit longer and take some photos in the rainforest. Having seen the conditions over the sea, we decided to walk back to a spot which I found previously with intention to photograph the sunset over the beach. As we kept walking back, the light was just getting better and better, and it had me motivated to get back as quickly as possible.

I ended up making it back just in time, as the sun appeared in the gap between the clouds and the horizon. I knew that the best light would not last for very long, so I set up my tripod and camera as quickly as I could. There was a band of clouds right on the horizon, and from previous experience I had an idea that as soon as the sun went behind them, the colours would fade. I saw the two tree stumps on the beach earlier, and I went towards them right away to compose the shot. There was not much else around other than the stumps to provide something of interest in the foreground. What helped further was that this section of the beach was also the cleanest when it came to other wood debris scattered around. It meant that I did not have to be concerned too much about unwanted elements in the composition. I did clean up a couple of odd branches around the edges in post processing but nothing too drastic.

Shooting right against the sun and with the bright golden glow over the clouds, it was always going to take exposure blending to get the light balanced across the scene. One of the first things I usually try when blending exposures is the 'Merge to HDR' feature in Lightroom. It does not always work well, especially if there are moving objects in the frame, but when it does it is a very powerful tool. It essentially gives me a RAW HDR file which allows for a lot of adjustments in the raw editor. It saves time on manual blending later on as well. This image was processed using this feature and I was very pleased with the resulting file. Little bit of extra work on the colour and contrast was all that was needed to finish the image.

After the colours dissipated, we headed back to our accommodation to find that it was still as gloomy and damp outside, as when we left for the coast. It turned out to be a really good decision to make that drive and getting a beautiful sunset was a fantastic reward.

Canon EOS R5 1/100 second F/8.0 ISO 100 24 mm

Welcome to my photo blog. I greatly value all your support, comments, and visits.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you ever have any questions about my photography, and I can also be found here:

Facebook | Flickr | 500px

If you would prefer to follow me on your smart phone, my Instagram tag is: @darkelfphotography


© Darkelf Photography

This image has been featured in 1 Remix collection.

Magical and Enchanting by Steven